Testing Your Monitored Home Security System
It is wise to regularly test your home security system to be confident that it will
trigger when it is really required to do so. This is particularly important if you
have monitored home security as you will want to test the monitoring company’s responsiveness
to your alarm and how well they react.
Arrange a date with your security monitoring company so that a test can be carried
out. Try to choose an unusual time of the day or week. Don’t go for the middle of
the day on a weekday. The reason being is that the most trained staff will probably
be on duty at this time so will give a false impression of how well they respond.
You will want to test their ability to respond where potentially less experienced
staff could be on duty such as in the evening or a night. Create a worse case scenario
and put your monitoring company to the test.
Also testing in the middle of the day will not give an accurate response from your
family. They will be wide awake and prepared as opposed to the middle of the night
where they will be half asleep and bleary eyed.
There is a chance your home security system may react differently in the day to
at night due to things like the environment. Temperature and moisture level vary
throughout the day and night. The absence of daylight could cause sensors to behave
differently eg PIR movement detection sensors. You need to be sure your alarm system
will work around the clock so be sure to test all times.
Why test your alarm system at all? Of course the reason for testing your system
is to identify any faults or issues that your system may have that you are not aware
of under normal operating circumstances. If it is a hardware fault you will have
time to fix the fault so that the system is 100% working perfectly again. The other
main reason is to assess the performance of your alarm monitoring company and make
sure your are getting a satisfactory service for the money you are paying. If you
are not happy – then switch alarm monitoring provider.